English Civil War - Campaign Day January 2015

Flasheart Vs Sir Andy de Cavenham

It was a very busy week for the naturally dramatic and dashingly good looking Lord (Derek) Tiberius Flasheart, defending his kings honour and promoting his own quality brand of hair products throughout the land.  Following his before mentioned discomfort over his capture of Little Pontefract from the Marquis of Newcastle, and his fracas with the Parliamentarian troops of  Diderich Beckman, Flasheart was again on the move.  This time it was to Devon that he raced; keen to catch the end of the traditional Kingsbridge beauty pageant he arrived to find the forces of Sir Andrew de Cavenham had already pinched the best seats.  This would obviously not do, and despite Sir Andrew’s generous offer to move away quietly Flasheart ordered the attack.  Sir Andrew’s attempt to ‘Breakout’ failed, and as the retreated towards the coast Flasheart was left with the village of Kingsbridge, and an urgent message from a sweat-stained rider that matters at home had gone awry and he needed to return at once.

Flashearts men too the fore, King's Lifeguard in the centre.  Andy's troops were drawn from my collection so it was a very civil war!

Sir Hugh of Beeston Vs the Marquis of Newcastle

What had gone awry was clear when he arrived back in the North Wales area; that notorious cad the Marquis of Newcastle had decided to return Flashearts visit to the North-East with a jaunt of his own to Hawarden, and he had brought his siege train with him.  Even as Flasheart was bawling at a cattle driver while sitting in the inevitable queue that mystically forms around the small village of Birmingham between 7am and 10pm, the Marquis had attacked Hawarden Castle.  Striking it lucky with his opening artillery salvo the geordie Sakers blew the gatehouse doors to match sticks, and followed up with storming parties, pikemen and musketeers scaling the walls and charging the gatehouse.  The castle defenders, led in Flasheart’s absence by his stalwart second; Sir Hugh of Beeston, put up a gallant fight, defeating the forlorn hope that stormed the gatehouse and fending off the musketeers best efforts at gaining a foothold on the walls.  However, the weight of numbers began to tell and Newcastle’s burly pikemen forced their way through the gates while a storming partly scaled the far wall near the keep using grenades to great effect.  The last of the defenders withdrew to the keep and, after a final unsuccessful assault by Newcastle’s troops on this formidable obstacle, peace terms were agreed and Sir Hugh was able to march his remaining troops back to Wrecsam with their weapons.

Newcastle's siege lines around Hawarden Castle.

The defenders - 137pts didn't get you alot of men, so we used 200pts of defenders and 400 of attackers.

Sir Hugh of Beeston spotting for the Royalist mortar 'Roaring Meg'.

The first assault goes in against the gatehouse.

Sir Hugh's men drive them back.

Newcastle's troops breach the gate and a one-sided fight ensues in the castle courtyard.

Meanwhile Newcastle's storming party succeeds in scaling the walls.

Retreat to the keep!

The last, unsuccessful, attack on the keep before Sir Hugh is able to surrender.

Flasheart Vs Sir David Astbury; MP

Newcastle, it seemed, had no interest in holding the castle, and in return for heading back Up North he simply demanded that Flasheart leave the key road the A1 to his sphere of operations.  Flasheart, being the sensible chap that he is, agreed completely and then gave chase hoping to catch the rascal unawares.  He was, however, slowed by his supply train, which also attracted the vast hungry masses of Wigan, lead by the Right Honourable MP for Wigan; Sir David Astbury.  Abandoning his pursuit of Newcastle with the catchy line “I’ll get you next time Newcastle, next time!” the well-groomed Lord Flash turned his troops towards the Parliamentarian MP and engaged in a lively debate that neither could claim to have won.  There was even some fighting.  Sir David’s mounted flanking attack turned up late and stalled against the reckless Cavalier horsemen, and the infantry fought each other to a standstill.  Sir David’s men returned to Wigan, still hungry.  Lord Flasheart’s men returned to Wrecsam, still dashingly good looking and hopping mad with Newcastle.  Flasheart himself took a musket ball to the shoulder and will require some well earned R&R in the nearest tavern and/or red light district before he returns to action.

The Royalist supply wagons that so enticed the masses of Wigan.

A clash of infantry - the King's Lifeguard pike ran for the second time in two battles, having done the same against Sir Andrew de Canham's men.  The Royalist horse were attacked from the left at this point by the flanking enemy horse.

Royalist dragoons hugging hedgerows.

Some pictures of other battles

Sir Chris Fazey's horse on their way to 'Breakout' and win their only victory of the day.

Diderich Beckman's Swedes face James 'Big Jim' McDonald's scots.

Sir Andrew de Cavenham (near side) on his unstopable way to claiming a 3rd (4th?) straight victory against De Blondeville.

 An Insert Of Realism

All of the above translates into the following; firstly a clash with Andy as he sought to ‘Breakout’ as the attacker in the scenario, but lacked the swift troops to make it in time, and left me in possession of the Devon village of Kingsbridge.  Secondly a siege game against Ian, and despite Aidans best intentions and efforts in putting in the scenario and bringing a lovely castle we mostly ignored the restrictions and went all gung-ho with more men than we were supposed to because it looked cool.  I thought Ian would enjoy being able to use his nicely painted multiple storming parties, and my own storming party garrisoned the gatehouse unsuccessfully.  We used some rules I’d tried and tested in ECW siege before, and it all worked very well and produced a cinematic game.  Ian defeated me and claimed a road (the A1 around Weatherby).  Finally my third game was against David, whose infantry were aggressive, but I managed to fight them to a standstill while our cavalry were evenly matched.  A draw.

Flasheart will return.